Archive for December, 2011

This post first appeared as “Who’s Tops on Jewish Sexy-O-Meter?” on The Shmooze blog at the Forward.

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the sexiest one of all? Well, according to the popular media, the answer to that question these days is the Jews. Whether you think of this as fetishism or not, it seems that many would agree with Details magazine that “America can’t get enough smoking-hot Semitic tush lately,” to put it somewhat crudely. And, of course, the sexiest of the sexy are Jewish celebrities.

This post first appeared as “Cardozo Law Student Chooses To Be Homeless” on The Shmooze blog at the Forward.

Some real homeless people

A Cardozo School of Law student who identifies himself only as “David,” has some serious first world problems. You know, like the kinds of problems that involve being able to afford a home with a warm bed to sleep in, good food to eat, nice clothes to wear, and somewhere safe and clean to bathe.

So burdened was David by these problems, that he decided to do away with his apartment and just live on the street (well, sort of—as you will soon read). In other words, in a time when so many people are having their home foreclosed upon them, David has deliberately chosen to be homeless.

But the real question is whether David’s brand of homelessness really counts as homelessness, as most people understand the term. In an interview with The Observer, the official newspaper of Yeshiva University’s Stern College for Women, David explained that he gave up his apartment and now spends $30-40 per month on a health club membership so he can shower and store his belongings in several lockers there. He also uses a locker at the law school. As a student, he has access to the couches in Cardozo’s climate controlled libraries, where he naps between classes and his internship during the day. He sleeps outside, bundled in layers of sweatshirts and blankets, for about six hours every night—after the libraries and health club are closed.

This review was first published as “‘Shiksa Appeal’ Leans on Outmoded Stereotypes” on The Sisterhood blog at the Forward.

I really did want to put down “Secrets of Shiksa Appeal: Eight Steps to Attract Your Shul-Mate,” a new self-help guide, which begins with the cringe-worthy lines, “I once drove a boyfriend into the arms of a shiksa. The following pages are my attempt to make up for that.” But before I knew it I was through the 117-page book.

The premise of “Secrets,” written by a 20-something author who goes by the pen name Avi Roseman, is that Jewish women would be able to get Jewish men to marry them if only they would act more like non-Jewish women (a premise that Details and Complex magazines would surely take issue with — even if for the wrong reasons). Only she freely calls these non-Jewish women “shiksas,” with apparently no concern that she might come off sounding like a huge bigot. As difficult as it was for me, I let my late bubbe get away with bandying “shiksa” about; but I can’t allow the young Roseman to feign ignorance of the derogatory nature of the term.

The essence of Roseman’s approach is that Jewish women just aren’t good enough.